Smoking Vs. Vaping

Many people have given up smoking as it is said to be a safer alternative to conventional cigarette smoking. Before jumping into the bandwagon, it is important to examine the facts first.

Chemicals

The crucial difference between e-cigarettes and cigarettes is that the latter contains tobacco. However, combusting either smoke or vapor into the lungs resulting in the same health complications, including cancer, heart disease, and emphysema. Smoking involves combusting tobacco, which contains thousands of chemicals. More than 20 of these are said to cause cancer (carcinogens).

Nicotine is the most commonly known carcinogen found in cigarettes. This is an addictive chemical that makes users crave for more. Other known carcinogens found in cigarettes are lead, formaldehyde, carbon monoxide, benzene, hydrogen cyanide, arsenic, ammonia, nitrosamine, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

Now, when making a cigarette, these chemical elements are not present. Instead, they are produced when the tobacco leaves are combusted as it marks the beginning of the chemical reaction process. But shifting to vaping will not help you avoid these carcinogens, although the number is said to be limited.

Vaping ditches the need for combustion. And the usual chemicals found in vapor, including nicotine, propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, acetaldehyde, and nitrosamines, are found to be food grade or safe to consume. But in-depth studies about e-cigarettes still need to be conducted as they not been around long enough to determine the extent of harm they may eventually have.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, e-cigarettes contain “detectable levels of known carcinogens and toxic chemicals to which users could be exposed.” However, an extensive report by the National Academies of Science pointed that the characteristics of smokers, kind of products, and use of devices are factors that will determine the potential health benefit of e-cigarette use for cigarette smokers.

Safety Concerns

Other than their effects on users’ well-being, both also have their own safety concerns that need to be addressed. In smoking, its smoking-material fires raise the highest concern. In fact, an estimated 90,000 smoking-materials fire were reported in the US alone, and more than 500 people died because of these incidents. But to address this issue, companies were ordered to reduce the strength of the cigarette’s ember or ignition to ensure dropped cigarettes will not combust anything.

E-cigarettes also have safety problems of its own, and the chunk boils down to exploding batteries. Although the causes are still unclear, overcharging and substandard battery use were pointed as culprits. Newer e-cigarette models have now made significant advances in terms of installing batteries so issues are less likely to occur when devices are used, stored, or traveled.

Cost

At the end of the day, for most people, it is all about the price tag. Many people would think that vaping is much more expensive than smoking. That is true when for starters, but in the long run, it still depends on how many sticks or vape bottles a user can finish in a day.

Based on the research conducted by Tobacco Control in 2017, the average cigarette intake is about five sticks per day. For 2019, New York holds the highest average price for a pack of cigarettes in the US at $12.85 followed by Illinois and Massachusetts at $11.50 and $9.95, respectively. This means it will cost an average user who consumes five packs a week $64.25. In a month, the cost goes up to about $250 and more than $3000 in a year. The pockets of heavy smokers are expected to be deeper than this.

On the other hand, a starter kit for vaping sits somewhere between $40 and $50, and the device usually lasts a year. This is the most expensive investment vapers make. After the kit, all that is left to buy are vape juices. A 120mL bottle of e-liquids from Fuggin Ejuice costs only $24.99. That generous amount would already last a week even for heavy vapers. This amount translates to less than $100 in a month and just around $1,200 in a year.

Another nice thing about e-liquid brands these days is that they offer incredible deals. For instance, the Fuggin Bronze includes for bottles of different vape juices for only $59.99. This makes it nearly half the price from the calculation made earlier.

Conclusion

More clinical trials from experts need to be carried out to clarify the potential uses and adverse effects of e-cigarettes as well as the formulation of nicotine solution concentration in vape juices.

You may have seen or heard of certain headlines making their way to mainstream media describing health concerns about “vaping” and, speciﬁcally, recent cases of injury or death. We want to clarify the issues so that consumers and the public can take the necessary precautions.

In recent years, vaping has become increasingly popular. However, some people are still uninformed, and there are many myths about vaping going around. We will address some popular myths about vaping in the post.